Carmen Curlers II

The year is 1965. Carmen Curlers steps up its production when an American cosmetic company places a huge order. Axel’s ambition is to sell his curlers all over the world as well as to create the world’s best workplace. However, a manufacturing defect in 50,000 sets of curlers puts production to a halt, and they have to close down temporarily. Axel starts suspecting the employees and the management of sabotage. Someone must have ruined the curlers on purpose, but who? Birthe is absorbed in her work at Carmen when a serious accident causes a group of rebellious women to demand better working conditions and support from the management. Birthe has to make some tough decisions and becomes unpopular. Soon after, when the factory has to close down because of the manufacturing defect, Birthe sends the ladies home without pay – and the gulf between her and the women on the factory increases. At home, her marriage with Jørgen suffers; he feels lonely and abandoned on the farm where their son Svend has ceased to take an interest in farming and prefers to earn his own money working at Carmen. It gets still harder for Birthe to balance her job with her family life. Axel’s old childhood enemy Poul has been committed to a mental institution after a suicide attempt, and his wife Vita is in charge of the family. She lies to everyone, including her daughter Kirsten, claiming that Poul is in America to close a big deal with a sulphur company. But when several LSD treatments only cause more darkness and fear in Poul, Vita decides to stand up to her mother-in-law, Ingrid, and get Poul home. This causes Ingrid, who has hitherto supported the family, to stop all financial aid. Birthe’s daughter Kathrine falls in love with Gustav, a chef, and she gets them both into political activism when she meets the fascinating Annie from Copenhagen. In the midst of a financial boom, USA is involved in a tragic war in Vietnam, and Kathrine and Gustav become part of the budding rebellion of the next generation who question the values in society as it is. At the end of the season, Axel discovers that Carmen Curlers is being plagiarized when a copy-cat product, Carla Curlers, emerges on the market. Axel now realizes that the sabotage and the plagiarism are connected. There is a spy at Carmen! Together with his closest colleagues he takes a train to Italy to confront the culprits and make them reveal the identity of the spy. What he does not know is that the real traitor is one of his travelling companions.